Saturday, June 8, 2013

I offer this as a reminder to our pro-gun commenters who continually tell us how bad they've got it. As gun-rights advocates they are maligned in the liberal media, they're harassed by the police for carrying guns openly and otherwise exercising their god-given, basic-human and Constitutionally-protected rights. Their precious 2nd Amendment is infringed upon left and right and with the blessing of Justice Scalia, no less.

As if whistling in the dark to keep their spirits up, they insist on their ability to fight off tyranny in the near future, should it become necessary. Secretly they know they'd be crushed by government drones which would zero right in on their homes - they know where you live.

I worry because as gun owners they are in much higher risk than others of suicide and other devastating misuses of their weapons. Constantly trying to convince people about how persecuted they are as a group can easily lead to clinical depression or uncontrollable rage. They're walking time bombs, except for Kurt, of course.

The nonchalance with which the detective spoke about the situation says it all. There's nothing wrong with leaving the guns out as long as no kids are coming over.

Well, why didn't the gun owner put the gun away when a kid did come over? And why the hell wasn't he held accountable for that unbelievable act of negligence which directly led to the death of his friend?

Let's hear it from our regular pro-gun commenters. How do you justify this one?

Part of the explanation, it seems to me, is that this happy scene took place in the great state of Arizona.

The accidental discharge of a live round and the resulting 10 injured
this week at the St. Charles Sportsmen’s Club prompted an internal
investigation, club President Mark Creedon said.

“I
was not present for the incident,” said Creedon, a Batavia resident.
“The club will investigate, and at that time, we will have the facts and
make a determination of how to proceed at that time.”

Kane
County Sheriff’s Lt. Pat Gengler said the police investigation was
closed, as officials determined the shooting was accidental and no
charges would be filed.

According to a sheriff’s report obtained
Thursday through the Freedom of Information Act, the club member who
accidentally discharged his gun was William Askwith, 69, of St. Charles.
He told police he “pointed the gun at the floor and pulled the trigger,
at which point a live .12-gauge round went off and struck the floor,”
according to the report.

Askwith had finished shooting on the range and came into the clubhouse about 7:30 p.m., according to the report.

“He
opened the breach on his Baretta .12-gauge, lever-action shotgun and
intended to insert a ‘snap cap’ into the weapon … Askwith explained that
a snap cap is an inert round that is placed in the chamber of the
weapon before the trigger is pulled to keep the firing pin from getting
damaged,” the report stated.

Askwith told sheriff’s deputies that
he did not know there was a live round in the weapon. When the buckshot
from the live round hit the floor, 10 people in the clubhouse were hit
with bits of the ricocheting discharge, police said.

I'm sure the "internal" investigation will do a lot of good. Heads will roll. Irresponsible people will be held accountable.

Police responded to a call from the suspect, Sanela
Suhopoljac, 22, after she accidentally shot Jonathan Heath, 29, in the
head. Suhopoljac lives at the residence. Also present was another adult
witness. All three individuals were at the residence voluntarily, the
release stated.As a result of the investigation, Suhopoljac was arrested for
aggravated assault due to engaging in reckless conduct that resulted in
serious bodily injury to another.“Specific details of exactly
how the entire incident unfolded are still under investigation, but it
is believed the suspect was reckless with the handling of the firearm,
rather than intentionally shooting the victim,” said Lt. Darren Brockway
of The Colony Police Department. “We still haven't spoken to the
victim, so we're still unclear as to exactly what happened, but we don't
believe it was intentional.“It was either an accident or
horseplay. We do know there wasn't an argument, but anytime someone
handles a firearm they have to be careful. It was definitely a reckless
act.”

Now, what's so hard about that? Were her rights violated? Was due process ignored?

No. When someone is responsible for a gun mishap, they should go to jail, just like this one did.

The body of a man believed to be the suspect in a shooting incident at
Santa Monica College lies on the sidewalk in Santa Monica, Calfornia
June 7, 2013. Police report the gunman killed at least six people before
he was shot to death. REUTERS/Daniel Kraft

A gunman killed at least six people in Santa Monica, California, on
Friday before he was shot dead by police at a library of a community
college, Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said.Seabrooks said a second individual she described as a "person of
interest" had been taken into custody in connection with the violence,
which unfolded a few miles from where President Barack Obama was
attending a political fundraiser.Authorities also found two people dead at the scene of a nearby
house fire, but police said it was not immediately clear whether the
fire and the shooting incident were related.Earlier, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol had told
Reuters that officers had received a report of a man armed with multiple
weapons, including a shotgun, firing at passing cars and a bus at two
locations near the college campus just west of Los Angeles.Students at the campus library described a scene of pandemonium as
the sounds of gunfire rang out, sending students scurrying for cover.One student inside the library, Cyrus Jabari, 19, said he could see
through a window a man dressed in black with a buzz-style haircut
carrying what appeared to be an assault rifle.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Another tragic accidental shooting, this one
in Texas: Emilee Bates was accidentally killed by her step-brother on
her 13th birthday Tuesday. Police say Austin McCord, 19, was clearing
his AK-47 at the time. He ejected two dummy rounds that were above the
loaded magazine, then pulled the trigger in what he believed was a safe
move, NBC 5
reports. The sheriff explains that "once you've emptied the weapon,
it's always safer to get the pressure off of the trigger, and that's
what he thought he was doing." But McCord forgot about the loaded
magazine, and the gun went off, shooting Emilee in the stomach."He
believed he was making the weapon safe by pulling the trigger to drop
the bolt on an empty chamber," the sheriff's office said in a statement
obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Police were called to the home around 8:30pm, where the step-siblings
were alone; Emilee had been studying. The seventh-grader died in a Fort
Worth hospital around 10pm. The case is considered an accident, and
police say no charges will be filed.

I have no words for this kind of horrible nonchalance. This is Texas at its best.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment. Please tell us why it's right that no charges should be filed.

Ten
people were injured Tuesday night at a Kane County shooting club after
being struck by buckshot fired from a gun that had been mistakenly
loaded with a live round, authorities said.

The incident took
place about 7 p.m. at the St. Charles Sportsmen's Club, near Elburn,
when a 69-year-old club member from St. Charles fired his shotgun into
the clubhouse floor, sending buckshot ricocheting and striking people
who were nearby, Kane County sheriff's Lt. Pat Gengler said.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

"The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter — it is the Art of Peace, the power of love."

Morihei Ueshiba, creator of Aikido speaking of a vision of the "Great Spirit of Peace" in 1942, during World War II, as quoted in Adjusting Though Reflex : Romancing Zen (2010) by Rodger Hyodo, p. 76

North Carolina's law banning convicted
felons from possessing firearms doesn't apply to a convicted kidnapper
who served his time in prison and was later pardoned, the state Court of
Appeals ruled Tuesday.

"The plain and unambiguous language" of the law is that it "does
not apply to individuals who have been pardoned," Judge Donna Stroud
wrote for the three-judge appeals panel.

Lee Franklin Booth's gun rights were restored with his pardon by
former Gov. Jim Hunt in 2001, the court said. Booth had been convicted
of second-degree kidnapping in Craven County in 1981 and released on
parole four years later.

Booth, 54, tried to start a gun-making business
in 2007, but was blocked from getting the needed federal license because
regulators interpreted North Carolina's felony firearms law to mean he
couldn't own a weapon.

The law doesn't specify any type of pardon, so
all of the types North Carolina governors can issue apply, the court
ruled. That countered an argument by state attorneys defending the North
Carolina law and arguing Booth was barred from gun ownership.

"We note that in various other statutes our
legislature does specify that particular types of pardons have different
consequences, but here the legislature chose not to modify the word
'pardon' but instead spoke to pardons in general," Stroud wrote.

I'm not sure what "pardon" really means. Doesn't the governor or the president give those away as gifts? Don't they have little to do with the person's innocense?

On the other hand when a person is exculpated, for example, based on DNA analysis, the action speaks directly to their innocense.

I would have to say that, unless a person's innocense is restored, they should not regain their gun rights.

And I reject outright the simplistic view that convicted felons who are deemed fit to return to society after having served a prison sentence are also fit to own guns safely. The folks who say that also say, if a person can't be trusted with a gun they can't be trusted to be released from prison. This is obviously pro-gun nonsense.

Jurors have found the parents of a toddler killed by her young brother not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.

The verdict comes after a two-day trial for Thomas Wallace, 25, and
his wife, Samantha Wallace, in the 2010 death of 2-year-old Camron
Wallace.

The pair could have faced one to six years if convicted.

Within hours of her death Chattanooga police Det. James Tate
interviewed Samantha Wallace. She described the scene and seemed shocked
at what happened.

The older children each had .22 caliber rifles, she said. She and
Thomas had explained to all three children that they should not touch a
gun unless mommy or daddy was around.

Defense attorneys Dan Ripper and Steve Brown explained to jurors
during opening statements that just days before Camron's death, a group
of men came knocking on the couple's front door at 2 a.m., and there had
been reports of home invasions.

Tinsley Place is considered a low-income, high-crime area, Tate testified.

After the incident, Thomas Wallace had taken the .45 caliber revolver
from its storage place high in a closet and put it in his nightstand,
wrapped in a towel.

Photographs the jury saw showed the fully loaded handgun, still
holding the empty shell casing, that had fired the bullet that struck
Camron in the chest.

"The only reason we're here today is because the state wants you to
hold these parents criminally responsible for the death of their child,"
Brown told the jury in opening statements.

Guilty with a suspended prison sentance and strict probation would have been the right call. Often jurors feel so sorry for the irresponsible gun owners who lose children and they let that cloud their judgment.

A Largo man fired several rounds from an AR-15 into his home, according to police.

"I was defending my own house," the defendant, Douglas York, told a judge.

York was arrested early Monday morning on a felony charge of shooting
at, within or into a building. A neighbor who lives behind York's home
said he heard about a dozen shots.

Police said York was shooting into his own home with an AR-15, because he thought he saw people by his house.
York told an officer he had injected prescription medication and had not
slept in days, according to an arrest affidavit.

At his first appearance in court, York told the judge he was not
taking any medication for a mental illness and had just fallen on hard
times.

”I’ve just had a very tough time in my life," York said. "I’ve hit
bottom with the foreclosure and things like that and the building of the
creek behind my house.”

The judge decided to lower York's bond from $10,000 to $7,500 because
he does not have a prior record. The judge also told York that he's not
allowed to drink alcohol or possess a gun if he bonds out of the
Pinellas County jail.

The gun-rights folks claim that guys like this are an insignificant minority. I don't think so.

In this photo taken May 24, 2013, a large sign posted at the entrance of
Paradise Firearms in Colorado Springs, Colo., invites customers to sign
a recall petition against Colorado Democratic State Senate President
John Morse.(Phot by: Ed Andrieski/AP Photo)

In late March, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed one of the nation’s toughest gun laws
following the Sandy Hook and Aurora movie theater shootings. But
voters opposed to the law—which requires background checks for private
and online gun sales and limits magazine sizes to 15-rounds—are striking
back.Democratic state Senator John Morse, who represents a historically
conservative Colorado Springs district, is facing a recall election due
to his support for the gun control measure.

Organizers gathered more than twice the number of signatures needed to force a special election in Morse’s district.

Morse, who is the Senate president, has two options: resign or face
the recall election to keep his seat. If Morse were to resign, Democrats
would keep his seat and the appointed legislator would finish the rest
of his term.

It works both ways, doesn't it? What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

(Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Clark Aposhian, Utah's chief gun rights activist and chairman of the
Utah Shooting Sports Council, appears in Holladay Justice Court on four
charges, including domestic violence, for a Memorial Day incident at his
ex-wife's house. Judge Augustus Chin ordered him to secure his weapons
away from his home, car and person.

Clark Aposhian — a political
force who helps guide gun policy on Utah’s Capitol Hill — was ordered by
a justice court judge Tuesday to surrender all firearms in his home,
office and on his person based on pending domestic violence charges and a protective order filed by his ex-wife.

"I’m going to prohibit you at this point as
part of the protective order from having any firearms," Judge Augustus
Chin said in a brief arraignment and hearing. "If there are any weapons
in your home, I’m giving you 24 hours to remove them. That’s in effect
immediately."

Aposhian, the state’s foremost gun lobbyist and
an outspoken concealed weapons permit instructor, pleaded not guilty to
domestic violence in the presence of a child and three other class B
misdemeanors: trespass, criminal mischief and threat of violence.

The charges all stem from a Memorial Day incident
in which Aposhian drove his 10-wheel, 2-ton army truck into his
ex-wife’s Cottonwood Heights neighborhood, allegedly honked an air horn
and then backed into the ex-wife’s driveway, nearly hitting a parked
vehicle.

Usually concealed carry maniacs get away with the crap they pull - not this time.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Here's how Coburn's plan would work: A gun buyer would log in
to a free federal web portal and enter some personal information. If the
buyer passes the background check, he or she would get a multi-digit
key code, good for 30 days, to print out and take to a seller. That
seller would use the same portal to confirm the authenticity of the
background check.

The self-service system, the
Oklahoma Republican said, would bypass the cost and record-keeping
requirements required by the current proposal, which would require the
involvement of a federally licensed firearm dealer for sales at gun
shows and over the Internet. It's unclear how much it would cost to
create a public-facing portal, but Congress has already authorized more
than $1.2 billion to improve the system available to law enforcement and
licensed dealers.

That dealer might not be convenient, and may charge a fee for the transfer service, Coburn said. And forcing
everyone to go through a licensed dealer would simply push gun sales
into the shadows. "If you make it easy for people to comply with the
law, they'll do it," he said. "If I'm a gun owner, I want to know I'm
not selling to someone who's on the list."

Sales to
family members would still be exempted from the system, unless the
seller has reason to believe the family member wouldn't pass. And states
could pass laws making even more exceptions to cover friends, neighbors
and co-workers.

Still, critics say Coburn's plan relies too much on voluntary compliance by private sellers."It's unworkable," said Ladd Everitt of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, "and there would be no incentive for any private seller to do a background check under the legislation."

Another problem for gun control advocates: There would be no lasting record of the sale.

From the beginning of the discussions about background check improvement, there's always been the idea that withough registration it would be unenforceable. This is no different.

I'm afraid what we need is comprehensive gun control, not more of the mish-mash spattering of laws that pass for gun control now. What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said that the new video will be showing
up on various internet sites and cable channels over the next three
weeks.

“We want to remind women that they are ultimately responsible for
their own safety and the safety of their children, and that in an
emergency, help may not get there in time,” Gottlieb said. “The Second
Amendment affirms and protects an individual’s right to keep and bear
arms in just such an emergency.

“The right of self-defense is the oldest human right,” he continued.
“Our video reminds viewers that there is much truth to the adage that
‘when seconds count, police are minutes away’. Women living alone,
single mothers or those whose husbands may be traveling or deployed
overseas should understand that laws designed to keep them disarmed are
literally putting them at the mercy of criminals who don’t know the
meaning of the word.

“We encourage women to empower themselves,” Gottlieb concluded. “If
they choose to buy a firearm, get competent instruction and learn to be
your own first responder. Our police agencies try to do a good job, but
budget cuts, manpower shortages and a busy criminal element all work
against public safety and the common good.

Ladies,
you need to start packing a Colt 45 next to your lipstick and tampons,
because the real war on women is the fact that the current liberal
regime wants to take away your right to bear arms however, wherever, and
whenever you want.

Not only is
this PSA the funniest best to make fun of — it's also the reason people
think gun violence is on the rise, even though recent statistics prove
the opposite is true. Another truth? If grandma wants to protect her grandkids, she needs to keep guns out of the house. Guns kill kids — at twice the rate of cancer
— and many of the incidents are because of the exact situation shown at
the end of this video. Guns left out amongst blush and Barbie dolls
(because WOMEN) is what leads to six year olds shooting four year olds.
Thirty-three percent of U.S. households have a gun, and half of
gun-owning households do not lock up their guns, including 40 percent of
households with kids under age 18.

Maybe there should be more PSAs on
that, and not this hilarious garbage video filled with fear and lies.

Gun-rights fanatics are having a field day with the opinion piece penned by the West Virginia Journalism Professor Christopher Swindell last week. They love it when someone on the gun control side says inflammatory and hyperbolic things. They pretend those things were said in earnest and not just to make a point. They act outraged and most of all, they repeat and repeat the out-of-context quotes in a silly attempt to paint gun control folks as raving lunatics.

So, to return to reality, all of us. Let's make common sense gun safety a
deciding issue for 2014 and beyond. The NRA certainly has. Let's push
back. We the People. The 85 percent who support more robust background
checks. And when the next domestic terrorist with an assault rifle comes
along, we can blame the leaders and fringe of the NRA for arming them.

Now, that's a little different from summarily executing NRA members by firing squad, don't you think? In fact, it sound down right democratic, mentioning the issue of common sense gun safety.

As far as who'll be to blame for the next mass shooting, I've always been in agreement with that.

Op-ed by J. Thomas Franklin is president of Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence.

Nine out of 10 Mainers would like to close the “gun-show loophole”
that exempts “private” gun sales from any background check or
record-keeping. Such exempt sales constitute about 40 percent of all gun
sales. But proposed legislation now working its way through the State
House does not reflect this near-unanimous public opinion.

The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee has favorably recommended a bill, LD 1240,
that would establish a voluntary background check system with
significant penalties for selling a gun to a buyer who could not pass a
background check. But a minority report from the committee recommends a
watered-down bill that would make such a sale to an illegal buyer an
offense only if the seller knew the buyer was illegal. That is, the
seller could simply ask “You’re not a convicted felon, are you?” and if
the buyer replied “Of course not,” the sale would be legal!

The minority report bill, supported by the National Rifle Association
and gun advocates, would make no change to existing law, which already
prohibits the knowing sale of a gun to an illegal buyer. It would
literally “fix” the gun show loophole by re-enacting the same loophole.
And it would cynically dismiss the clearly stated preference of Mainers
for more modern and safer gun laws.

Yet another wrinkle in the assertion that the Second Amendment in some way allows for “self-Defence”:

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States
Constitution each contain a Due Process Clause. Due process deals with
the administration of justice and thus the Due Process Clause acts as a
safeguard from arbitrary denial of life, liberty, or property by the
Government outside the sanction of law.

The general common law principle is that the law allows only
reasonable force to be used in the circumstances and, what is reasonable
is to be judged in the light of the circumstances as the accused
believed them to be (whether reasonably or not). The jury should be
directed to look at the particular facts and circumstances of the case
in deciding whether a defendant had used only reasonable force. After
all, the defendant will always be of the opinion he used reasonable
force.

Only reasonable force may be used. Despite a common belief to the
contrary, one is not at liberty to shoot dead a burglar wandering around
one’s house if one does not fear for one’s own life in common law.
Anyway, historically Clause 39 of Magna Carta provided:

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of
his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his
standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him,
or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or
by the law of the land.

This came into US law via the Due Process guarantees of the US Constitution found in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

[N]or shall any person . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law .

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

[N]or shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law .

The issue here is that these laws allow for summary justice and
vigilantism outside of the legal process. One should not take the law
into his/her own hands for the purposes of revenge, retribution, or
sheer vigilantism. The rule of law must be maintained and violence
discouraged by a proper legal system for it to have any authority.

Of course, this is just a musing, but perhaps it will be taken up by
someone else who is offended by the allowance of murder by an out of
whack US legal system.

Additional thoughts on this topic:

I should have mentioned the concept of wergild, which was a value
placed on every human being and every piece of property in the Salic
Code. If property was stolen, or someone was injured or killed, the
guilty person would have to pay weregild as restitution to the victim’s
family or to the owner of the property.

The important aspect of this was that the payment of weregild
performed an important legal mechanism in early Germanic society since
the other common form of legal reparation at this time was blood
revenge.

The foundation of the American legal system rests on the Rule of Law,
a concept embodied in the notion that the United States is a nation of
laws and not of men. Under the rule of law, laws are thought to exist
independent of, and separate from, human will. Even when the human
element factors into legal decision making, the decision maker is
expected to be constrained by the law in making his or her decision. In
other words, police officers, judges, and juries should act according to
the law and not according to their personal preferences or private
agendas.

Vigilantism is the people’s complete disregard for the rule of law.
The problem is that vigilantes risk starting a cycle of violence and
lawlessness in which the victims of vigilantism take the law into their
own hands to exact pay-back.

There is a reason that Clause 29 of Magna Charta provided that:

NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised
of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or
exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor
condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the
land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man
either Justice or Right.

These laws are a denial of justice and right which has been sanctioned by the state.
There is a reason that the force used for self-defence is that which is reasonable to stop the threat yet respecting life.

And justice. There is a long case line that works to promote the
rule of law and discourage vigilantism in the Common Law (and other
legal systems)

In the words of Bill Maher, the 2A is bullshit. It is meaningless in today's world, in
spite of the mistaken and nonsensical rulings of the Supreme Court in
Heller and McDonald. Those were the result of political bastardization
of an antiquated right which had long since lost all meaning.

Nevada Sen. Ruben Kihuen, left, congratulates Sen. Justin Jones, both
D-Las Vegas, after the Assembly voted 23-19 to approve Jones' bill
mandating universal background checks for all gun sales in Nevada. The
bill drew a large crowd in the gallery of the Assembly as lawmakers
work through the final hours of the 77th Legislative session at the
Legislative Building in Carson City, Nev., on Monday, June 3, 2013.
Photo: Cathleen Allison

A
bill mandating universal background checks on all gun sales in Nevada
is on its way to the governor's desk Monday after clearing the state
Legislature on the last day it's in session.The Assembly voted 23-19 to give SB221 the final stamp of legislative approval."This was the right thing to do," Sen. Justin Jones,
D-Las Vegas, the bill's primary sponsor, said minutes after the vote,
adding he was "proud and humbled" by the support of his colleagues in
the Assembly.Jones said he hoped Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval
will consider the bill which includes sections mandating faster and
better reporting of court-findings of mental illness and requiring a
doctor to report a patient who makes a specific threat toward themselves
or someone else.Shortly after the vote, Sandoval's spokeswoman Mary-Sarah Kinner said the governor will veto the bill.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) announced in a statement Monday that she has a treatable form of lung cancer:

“My recent annual health physical revealed that I, like so many millions of Americans, have a treatable form of cancer.

“Several diagnostic tests have led to a diagnosis of lung cancer. A
treatment plan will begin soon and I look forward to its successful
completion.

“My doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where I’ll
receive my treatment, has told me that I begin my treatment in good
physical health and that he looks forward to my return to work after I
recover. My family and I will appreciate privacy while I undergo my
treatment.

In one month a law will take effect in Mississippi that has many law
enforcement officers, business owners and regular people confused.

House
Bill 2, a bill meant to clarify Mississippi’s concealed carry gun laws,
defines the word concealed and in doing so says it shall not include
weapons being carried upon a person in a sheath, belt holster or
shoulder holster that is wholly or partially visible.

Gun rights
advocates have taken to campaigning for and embracing a new open carry
movement. One group in Corinth is hosting an open carry, empty chamber
day at Corinth City Park on July 6 once the law goes into affect.

Many
law enforcement officials have expressed concern that this will bring
more weapons into play in their everyday duties, increasing their call
volume and confusion at crime scenes.

Verona Police Chief Anthony Anderson said he is anticipating much
discussion on how to enforce this law at the upcoming Mississippi
Association of Chiefs of Police Conference on June 16.

He said he
is a supporter of Second Amendment rights but doesn’t look forward to
walking into a gas station where four people have guns on their hips and
trying to figure out who is trained to use the firearm and what their
intentions are.

When the new law goes into effect, convicted felons will still be
prohibited from carrying a firearm, people will still be prohibited from
carrying a firearm into an area with posted signs banning firearms
unless they have a state-issued enhanced conceal carry permit and anyone
using a firearm in the commission of a crime or for intimidation can be
held legally responsible.

To carry a firearm in public in Mississippi, a person must be at least 18 years of age.

Over the weekend, New York City witnessed 25 shootings, resulting in
six fatalities. On Sunday alone, three people were killed and eight
others wounded by gunfire from Brooklyn to the Bronx.

The rash of weekend shootings comes against a backdrop of major gun
control efforts by both New York City and state officials. Mayor Michael
Bloomberg has emerged as one of the nation’s strongest advocates for
stricter firearm regulations, and has long touted the city’s strict gun
control rules as helping to bring about a significant drop in crime over
the last decade. (The mayor’s office declined to comment on the
weekend’s shootings.)New York recently became the first state to pass major gun control
legislation since the Dec. 14 shootings in Newtown, Conn. The bill that
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law in January both strengthens the
state’s existing assault weapons ban and introduces new mental health
regulations for potential gun owners.

While the weekend’s heinous gun
violence might suggest the ineffectiveness of such measures, this year’s
numbers are notably better than the last. According to the Daily News, the 440 shootings so far this year represent a 23 percent drop from the 574 victims in 2012.

And while some have described this weekend’s figures as “Chicago-like,”
the Windy City still leads the Big Apple in gun violence. Chicago, a
city with just one-third of New York’s population, witnessed over 500
homicides last year compared with New York’s 414. This weekend, Chicago
saw 12 people wounded by shootings and one fatality.

You know what's funny? The hypocritical gun-rights fanatics love to accuse gun-control folks of "dancing in the blood of the victims." Yet, when news like this comes out, they all smile and go, "Aha, how are those gun control laws working out for ya?" As usual, what they accuse others of is what they themselves do.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., died overnight of complications from viral pneumonia, his office said Monday.At 89, Lautenberg was the oldest senator—and the last World War II veteran serving in that legislative body. He enlisted at 18 and served in the Army Signal Corps in Europe during the war.Lautenberg served on the Senate committees on Appropriations;
Commerce Science and Transportation; and Environment and Public Works.
He had struggled with health problems earlier this year and already had
announced that he would not run for re-election in 2014.Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, has the power to appoint someone
to fill the vacancy, according to The Bergen Record, which was first to report the news.
Christie is expected to schedule a special election to find a permanent
successor—a decision that is sure to impact what was already considered
a heated race to replace the late senator.Lautenberg's career accomplishments
included writing the law that banned smoking on airplanes, and he later
helped craft legislation to ban smoking in all federal buildings. He
also played a central role in raising the national drinking age to 21.
He also wrote the law that prevents domestic abusers from owning
firearms.

That last one is part of the reason pro-gun folks hated him so. Gun-rights fanatics are like that. Anything that even mentions restricting gun ownership, however sensible, is cause for their ire.

Monday, June 3, 2013

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has failed in an attempt to block a
new gun regulation introduced by President Obama in July 2011, which
will require gun dealers in border states to report multiple sales of
semi-automatic weapons. In a unanimous ruling on Friday, the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the claim by the NRA that the
requirement was nothing more than an underhanded attempt to introduce a
register of gun sales, which the NRA is vehemently opposed to. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said at the time
that the organization viewed the rule "as a blatant attempt by the
Obama administration to pursue their gun-control agenda through backdoor
rule making, and the N.R.A. will fight them every step of the way.
There are three branches of government and separation of powers, and we
believe they do not have the authority to do this." However, on Friday
the three federal judges all rejected this claim and agreed that the Obama administration should be allowed to continue with implementation of the new rule.Furthermore, the judges specifically rejected the NRA's argument
that the rule would amount to the creation of a gun registry, saying
that it "does not come close to creating a 'national firearms registry'"
because it only applies to four states and only on a very limited
basis. Under the rule, if there were no investigative leads arising from
the information passed on to it after two years, the ATF would then delete it. Holders of federal firearms licences are already required to report multiple sales of handguns.

In the space of eight months, Philadelphia Police Officer Larry Shields twice made the decision to shoot.The first time, Shields shot and wounded a man who he said had
pointed a Glock at him in a North Philadelphia house. The wounded man
has since sued the city, but he was arrested after the encounter and
police Internal Affairs and the District Attorney's Office have backed
Shields.The second time, Shields fired upon an unarmed man in the victim's Southwest Philadelphia house.This spring, the city paid the wounded man $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit, the biggest such payout in connection with a police shooting in at least a decade.But again, the District Attorney's Office ruled it a justified shooting.

Too bad this dangerous cop wasn't disarmed the first time he shot someone who didn't need shootin'. Maybe after the third or fourth such incident they will. Pro-gun crybabies will be happy to know that around here we believe in equal treatment for reckless gun owners, cops as well as civilians.

A 28-year-old Federal Heights man has
been arrested after he allegedly shot his 5-year-old daughter in the leg
by accident late Friday night, police say.

The girl was taken to
Children's Hospital in Aurora where she was in stable condition, said
Sgt. T. Dougherty, Federal Heights spokesperson.

Julian Montoya has been arrested in connection with the shooting.

It
was reported that the shooting happened outside a home in the yard. But
when officers arrived at the home, they were unable to find the suspect
and victim initially, Dougherty said. They were later able to locate
Montoya and his daughter.

The father had negligently discharged a firearm, striking the child, Dougherty said. An investigation is continuing.

Now, you see, arresting the (ir)responsible party immediately does not preclude the possibility of a continuing investigation, nor does it violate anybody's rights or the concept of due process.

AssociatedPress/Jim Cole - Family and friends arrive for a memorial
service for Nancy Lanza on Saturday June 1, 2013 in Kingston, N.H.
Lanza’s 20-year-old son, Adam Lanza, killed her at their home in
Newtown,
Conn., on Dec. 14 and then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where
he killed the children and six school employees before committing
suicide. (AP Photo/Jim Cole) Yahoo News

More than 100
family and friends gathered at a church in a small New Hampshire town
Saturday to remember the woman whose son massacred 20 first-graders and
six educators in a Connecticut elementary school last year.

The mourners and a few musicians filed into the white clapboarded First Congregational Church in Kingston for the memorial of Nancy Lanza, the first victim of her 20-year-old son Adam's rampage. She was shot dead in their home before he blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14. He killed himself as police closed in.

More than a dozen uniformed police officers from several agencies
blocked off the street and guarded the church door, ensuring only
friends and family were allowed into the service. Nancy Lanza grew up in
New Hampshire and lived there before moving to Newtown in 1998.

A lone police bagpiper played as the processional arrived and lined
up outside the church to enter together. Media outlets were kept 60
yards back across the street and behind yellow tape, and mourners
declined to talk to reporters.

A few people wiped their eyes as they left the church.

Friends have said Nancy Lanza loved the Red Sox and gardening and
talked of a growing enthusiasm for target shooting. The rifle and two
handguns Adam Lanza took into Sandy Hook were registered to her.

Poor Nancy goes down in history as the worst, most irresponsible lawful gun owner ever. Or, should I say, so far.

Like many others, she was convinced that guns made her safer. But, like many others, she did not practice adequate care in safely and properly storing those guns.

Everyone knows the results. And anyone who says only young Adam was responsible for what happened, is taking a purposely simplistic view of the situation and turning a blind eye on the failure of Nancy Lanza to take proper and responsible precautions with her deadly weapons.